Biel Rd1 - Giri beats Morozevich, and Hao beats Bacrot

by ChessBase
7/24/2012 – No sooner did Dortmund end than the Biel Chess Festival got underway, bringing back Magnus Carlsen to defend his title. In the first round he clashed with Nakamura, but the American's tenacious defense held the draw in a difficult position. Wang Hao beat Bacrot after the latter took a poisoned pawn, while Giri continued his good run and beat Morozevich. Illustrated report with GM commentary.

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The 2012 Biel Chess Festival is taking place from July 23rd to August 2nd, in a number of groups: the Master Tournament (eleven rounds Swiss); the Main Tournament (nine rounds Swiss); a Rapid and a Blitz tournament; Chess960; Youth, Simultaneous, Chess Tennis, ChessBase training seminars. Of greatest interest is of course the Accentus Grandmaster Tournament with six very strong grandmasters playing a double round robin: Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Alex. Morozevich, Wang Hao, Etienne Bacrot and Anish Giri.


Hikaru Nakamura, Etienne Bacrot, Magnus Carlsen, Wang Hao, Anish Giri and Alex Morozevich

The rate of play: 40 moves in 100 minutes, then 20 moves in 50 minutes followed by 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 sec increment per move. The scoring system is three points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. No draw offers are permitted before move 30.

Round one

Round 1: Monday, July 23, 14:00h
Magnus Carlsen 
½-½
 Hikaru Nakamura
Wang Hao 
1-0
 Etienne Bacrot
Alex. Morozevich 
0-1
 Anish Giri 

Much like one of those special double-billings at movie houses, chess players and fans are not being allowed a moment’s breath with the end of Dortmund on Sunday giving way to the first round of Biel on Monday. The lineup could hardly be sweeter with Magnus Carlsen returning to defend his title, accompanied by Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Morozevich, top Chinese player Wang Hao, Etienne Bacrot, and prodigy Anish Giri.


Nakamura gives his opinion

In the first round, Carlsen was paired against Nakamura, and the Norwegian seemed to be weaving his special brand of magic as he tried to build up a minute advantage. The American buckled down and came up with a deep defensive idea that turned out to be sufficient to neutralize his opponent’s evil plans and they drew.


Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen review their game. The post-game video analysis
can be seen live at Playchess right after the game's end.

Top-rated Chinese player Wang Hao completely steamrolled Etienne Bacrot after the latter took an ill-advised pawn after which his game fell apart.

Annotations by GM Alejandro Ramirez

[Event "45th Biel Chess Festival"] [Site "Biel"] [Date "2012.07.23"] [Round "1"] [White "Wang, Hao"] [Black "Bacrot, Etienne"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E97"] [WhiteElo "2738"] [BlackElo "2695"] [Annotator "Ramirez, Alejandro"] [PlyCount "71"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] [EventCountry "SUI"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. b4 Nh5 10. g3 f5 11. Ng5 Nf6 12. Bf3 c6 13. Ba3 (13. Bg2 {was the recent game Kramnik-Grischuk from the Tal Memorial, 2012. Kramnik won a fabulous game, but maybe Wang Hao was afraid of a Bacrot improvement.}) 13... cxd5 14. exd5 e4 15. Be2 h6 {This move had only been tried by a 2100 some time ago. Giri chose Ne8 against Kramnik a couple of years ago and lost.} 16. Ne6 Bxe6 17. dxe6 f4 {This must be Bacrot's improvement. Black decides to quickly activate this pawn majority and cause White headaches. The computers dont initially notice this move but eventually end up liking it. No human would really think about taking on f4, so White must protect against the f3 threat.} 18. Qd2 f3 (18... fxg3 19. hxg3 {would not make any sense, the pawn must venture forward.}) 19. Bd1 Qc8 20. Re1 Qxc4 $6 {Maybe a big mistake, but the alternative was not exactly tempting.} (20... Qxe6 21. Bxf3 Qxc4 22. Bd1 $5 { And Black, as it happens many times in this line, is up a pawn but has problems because of his weakened structure and White's pair of bishops. At least in this version, however, the Bishop on g7 is free. Maybe this was the way to go.} (22. Be2 Qe6 23. Rac1 $44)) 21. Bb3 Qa6 22. Bb2 {The problem now is that after the e4 pawn falls (which is inevitable) the e6 pawn will become very strong. By this point I am sure that Bacrot was regretting not swiping that pawn off the board. The f3 pawn will be more of a weakness than an attacking asset.} Rad8 23. Nxe4 Nxe4 24. Rxe4 Bxb2 25. Qxb2 d5 26. Re3 {The d-pawn is nowhere near as powerful as the e-pawn. On other news, Black's kingside is a bit loose and the f3 pawn easily attackable. White has a very celar advantage.} Rd6 27. Rae1 Qb6 28. Bd1 a5 29. b5 Nf5 30. e7 Re8 31. Re5 { After the f3 pawn falls the rest is easy.} Qc7 {Black tries to create counterplay by attacking the now very advanced e7 pawn. However, the problem is that his king is also weak and his coordination is lackluster. Wang Hao punishes Black's piece positioning immediately.} 32. Bxf3 Rxe7 (32... Nxe7 33. Bxd5+ $18) 33. Rxe7 Nxe7 34. Qe5 Kf8 (34... Kf7 35. Qf4+ (35. Bg4 $18) 35... Kg8 36. Bxd5+ {makes Black wish he didn't put his queen on c7.} Nxd5 37. Re8+ Kh7 38. Qf8 $18) (34... Nf5 35. Bxd5+ Kh7 36. g4 $1 Ng7 37. Bxb7 {and the extra two pawns should force resignation.}) 35. Qh8+ Ng8 {[#]} (35... Kf7 36. Qh7+) 36. Re8+ $1 {A nice coup de grace. This variation loses again for Black, and it is a surprise that it keeps being repeated. In essence, Bacrot prepared an interesting novelty that might have given him a slightly worse position in exchange for a pawn, entirely playable in fact. However, he committed a small slip, let that pawn on e6 live, and it all just went downhill from there. White's moves are logical and easy to find while Black played one bad move and lost. This variation has serious issues at the moment...} (36. Re8+ Kxe8 37. Qxg8+ Ke7 38. Qg7+ Kd8 39. Qf8+ Kd7 40. Bg4+ $18) 1-0


Wang Hao couldn't hope for a better start


Wang Hao analyzes his win over Etienne Bacrot

Finally, Alexander Morozevich and Anish Giri played an extremely complicated game which seemed to stay balanced, barring a tactical gaffe missed by both players on move 32. Listening to Anish Giri comment in the post-game analysis, and how completely mystified he was by his opponent’s moves throughout the game, it sounded as if they were playing different games that just so happened to take place on the same board. Sometime past the time control, it was clear that whatever the engine’s evals were, the Russian’s king was the one in danger, and under pressure he cracked and lost.


Anish Giri fires off analysis during the post-mortem


Anish Giri shares his understanding and confusion  

Pictures by Pascal Simon


Live GM commentary on Playchess

There is live audio and video commentary on the chess server Playchess. The English commentary starts at 3:30 p.m., and German commentary directly from the playing site begins at 4:00 p.m. In addition Yasser Seirawan is doing round-up shows at 8:00 p.m. on the days he is commenting.

Commentary schedule

Monday 23/07/2012 Klaus Bischoff Yasser Seirawan
Tuesday 24/07/2012 Klaus Bischoff Yasser Seirawan
Wednesday 25/07/2012 Klaus Bischoff Yasser Seirawan
Friday 26/07/2012 Klaus Bischoff Yasser Seirawan
Saturday 27/07/2012 Klaus Bischoff Yasser Seirawan
Monday 28/07/2012 Klaus Bischoff Yasser Seirawan
Tuesday 30/07/2011 Klaus Bischoff Oliver Reeh
Wednesday 31/07/2012 Klaus Bischoff Oliver Reeh
Thursday 1/08/2012 Klaus Bischoff Sam Collins
Friday 2/08/2012 Klaus Bischoff Sam Collins

As a special treat the multimedia commentary live from Biel is also available on our live browser coverage. This also includes the players analysing after their games.


Overview: schedule and results

Round 1: Monday, July 23, 14:00h
Magnus Carlsen 
½-½
 Hikaru Nakamura
Wang Hao 
1-0
 Etienne Bacrot
Alex. Morozevich 
0-1
 Anish Giri 
Round 2: Tuesday, July 24, 14:00h
Hikaru Nakamura 
   Anish Giri
Etienne Bacrot 
   Alex. Morozevich
Wang Hao 
   Magnus Carlsen
Round 3: Wednesday, July 25, 14:00h
Wang Hao 
   Hikaru Nakamura
Alex. Morozevich 
   Magnus Carlsen
Anish Giri 
   Etienne Bacrot 
Round 4: Thursday, July 26, 14:00h
Alex. Morozevich 
   Hikaru Nakamura
Anish Giri 
   Wang Hao
Etienne Bacrot 
   Magnus Carlsen
Round 5: Friday, July 27, 14:00h
Hikaru Nakamura 
   Etienne Bacrot 
Magnus Carlsen 
   Anish Giri
Wang Hao 
   Alex. Morozevich
Round 6: Saturday, July 28, 14:00h
Hikaru Nakamura 
   Magnus Carlsen
Etienne Bacrot 
   Wang Hao
Anish Giri 
   Alex. Morozevich
Round 7: Monday, July 30, 14:00h
Anish Giri 
   Hikaru Nakamura
Alex. Morozevich 
   Etienne Bacrot 
Wang Hao 
   Magnus Carlsen
Round 8: Tuesday, July 31, 14:00h
Hikaru Nakamura  
   Wang Hao
Magnus Carlsen 
   Alex. Morozevich
Etienne Bacrot 
   Anish Giri
Round 9: Wednesday, August 1, 14:00h
Etienne Bacrot 
   Hikaru Nakamura
Anish Giri 
   Magnus Carlsen
Alex. Morozevich 
   Wang Hao
Round 10: Thursday, August 2, 11:00h
Hikaru Nakamura 
   Alex. Morozevich
Wang Hao 
   Anish Giri
Magnus Carlsen 
   Etienne Bacrot 

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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